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2 tie for first at VCSU symposium

Students at Valley City State University got the chance to present projects they have been working on over the 2011-2012 school year at the Scholar Symposium on Thursday.

Nearly three dozen students presented to a panel of 21 judges that included VCSU faculty and staff on topics ranging from the North Dakota dairy industry to classical music and literary analysis.

“It’s an annual event and it’s the best works from the fall semester and the spring semester,” said Jodi Shorma, VCSU instructor and the symposium’s coordinator.

Brooke Jodsaas and Sarah Caswell tied for the Best in Show award. Jodsaas’s presentation was a critical analysis of the poem “Siren Song” by Margaret Atwood, while Caswell’s project was a study on Ludwig van Beethoven’s fifth symphony.

Shorma said ties are not uncommon in the event, which began in 2004, but this is the first time there has been a tie for the top prize.

Shou-Ching Chao, VCSU instructor and a judge at the symposium said his judging was based on “Whether that’s well focused, whether that’s well structured; and when it is delivered, whether the verbal delivery is cohesive and easy to be understood. That’s the main thing I’m looking for, also I’m trying to see if through this particular project, whether the student has learned something which he or she did not know before.”
The full results are:

Best in Show – Tie for First Place
Brooke Jodsaas, Margaret Atwood’s Poem “Siren Song” and Empowering Women
Sarah Caswell, Beethoven’s 5th: The Power of Meticulous Craftsmanship

First Runner Up
Courtney Titus, The Haunting of Non-Existence – An Analysis of Gwendolyn Brooks’ “The Mother”